South Korea’s U-20 Run was ended last night on penalties 7-6. And what a way to end.
Before the game, I had resigned myself to thinking that we were fucked. Spain were killing in this tournament, 3 straight wins against Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Australia, where they had scored 11 and conceded just 2. Their starting lineup against us:
Sergio Canales (Real Madrid bench)
Oriol Romeu (Chelsea bench)
Jordi Amat (Espanyol starter)
Marc Bartra (Barcelona bench)
Cristian Tello (Barcelona B starter)
Antonio Luna (Sevilla bench)
Hugo Mallo (Celta starter)
Dani Pacheco (Liverpool bench)
Rodrigo Moreno (Benfica bench)
Koke (Athletico Madrid starter)
Against what could be a La Liga team on its own, an assortment of Korean university students put in the best performance by a team representing South Korea that I have seen in recent years. Against professional players of the highest level, our college kids were passing them, dribbling them, faking them, nutmegging them, and I must admit, I could not believe what I was witnessing.
In the end, a young winger missed his penalty kick and Spain won the kicks 7-6. I was fairly upset until I saw the kid collapse like a dying star, bawling uncontrollably, face in both hands. When you see that, its hard to become anything but sympathetic and protective. What was touching was that his teammates from the bench ran over and comforted him in a massive huddle. And then the Spanish team ran over as well.
The poor kid apologized to the nation from his social network website.
What I’ve learned this last 12 months from the myriad of international tournaments, is that we often focus too much on the senior men’s teams, as though they are all that matters. In some ways its true, but its tournaments like the u19’s, the u20s, the women’s world cups, when you actually more genuine passion from the players in contrast to the shenanigans of modern professional footballers. In times where an entire national team will refuse to play the world cup due to infighting, or more shoving and arguing than football in a Champions League game, its refreshing to see the beautiful game played with heart from hungry teams that have no interest in anything but doing their best.
Many thought the Women's World Cup displayed better gameplay
And with that, my last tournament before the new EPL season ended. And I must say, I am satisfied. If we had to be knocked out by a team, it was tournament favorites Spain. And those kids did me mighty proud with that scintillating performance. I think I was able to come to this kind of closure when I read what Marca and AS had named the South Korea U-20 team: “Pesadilla.”
Don't worry young sons of Korea. You are already better than the fucktards that lost to Japan.
The Beautiful Game 